ASHLAND, VA – No. 3 Roanoke scored the first seven goal of the game and were able to hold off a furious second-half rally by Randolph-Macon as the Maroons topped the Yellow Jackets 13-9 Saturday afternoon in ODAC Men’s Lacrosse action.

Goals by RC’s (11-0 / 1-0 ODAC) Stephen Simmons and Noah Gibby gave the Maroons a 2-0 lead with 8:35 to go in the first quarter of play. Following Gibby’s strike, an equipment check penalty gave RC a three minute EMO, in which they scored on three times to jump out to a 5-0 advantage with 5:18 to go in the opening frame.

After goals by Benjamin Sultze and Charles Wilson pushed the RC lead to 7-0, Tyler Midwinter got R-MC (4-3 / 0-1 ODAC) on the scoreboard with 1:45 to play in the quarter.

Each team scored three goals in the second quarter with Mindwinter and Billy Rowe registering tallies for R-MC as the Yellow Jackets went to the intermission trailing 10-4.

Rowe and Kevin Patton scored the only goals of the third quarter to cut the Roanoke lead to 10-6, then Patrick Egan and Midwinter collected the first two strikes of the final quarter to pull R-MC within in two at 10-8 with 11:13 to play.

A Pat March score with 9:16 to go gave RC an 11-8 advantage, before Brian Rowe scored a man-up goal with 3:53 left, making the game 11-9 in favor of RC.

That would be as close as the Jackets would get as March and Gibby each scored goals in the final twenty two seconds of the contest and Maroon keeper Jake Dorsey made some key saves down the stretch to seal the game for RC.

Midwinter finished the game with four goals to lead R-MC, while Adam Liberto made 15 stops in the cage for the Jackets. March finished with four goals and Dorsey turned away 11 shots for the Maroons.

RC outshot R-MC 51-27 and held a 63-47 advantage in the ground ball battle.

Randolph-Macon will be back in action on Wednesday when it travels to Hampden-Sydney for a 4:00 ODAC game.